Virgins: An Outlander Short

Mourning the death of his father and gravely injured at the hands of the English, Jamie Fraser finds himself running with a band of mercenaries in the French countryside, where he reconnects with his old friend, Ian Murray. Both are nursing wounds, both have good reason to stay out of Scotland, and both are still virgins despite several opportunities to remedy that deplorable situation with ladies of easy virtue.

Lavender Morning

Jocelyn Minton is a woman torn between two worlds. Her mother grew up attending private schools and afternoon teas, but she married the local handyman. After her mother died when Joce was only five years old, her father remarried into his own class, and Joce became an outsider - until she met Edilean Harcourt. Although she was sixty years Joce's senior, Miss Edi was a kindred soul who understood her like no one else ever had. When Miss Edi passes away, she leaves Joce all her worldly possessions, including an eighteenth-century house and a letter with clues to a mystery that began in 1941.

Sailing to Sarantium: Book One of the Sarantine Mosaic

Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plaque, he lives only for his arcane craft. But an imperial summons from Valerius the Trakesian to Sarantium, the most magnificent place in the world, is difficult to resist. In a world half-wild and tangled with magic, a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret and a Queen's seductive promise, guarded only by his own wits and a talisman from an alchemist's treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city. Along the way he will encounter a great beast.

The Apothecary's Daughter

After enjoying London's sophisticated society and the attentions of wealthy suitors, Lilly returns home to help her ailing dad. Determined to resurrect his apothecary business, Lilly labors tirelessly - praying her family's secrets and her rivals' schemes won't cloud her future.

I Am Livia

At the tender age of 14, Livia Drusilla overhears her father and fellow aristocrats plotting the assassination of Julius Caesar. Proving herself an astute confidante, she becomes her father’s chief political asset - and reluctantly enters into an advantageous marriage to a prominent military officer. Her mother tells her, "It is possible for a woman to influence public affairs," reminding Livia that - while she possesses a keen sense for the machinations of the Roman senate - she must also remain patient and practical.

Villette

Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.

What Angels Fear: Sebastian St. Cyr, Book 1

It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man - Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.

The Queen of the Tearling: A Novel

Magic, adventure, mystery, and romance combine in this epic debut in which a young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler - and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her. On her 19th birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa.

The Miniaturist

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, 18-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office - leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

The Circle of Ceridwen: The Circle of Ceridwen Saga, Book 1

It is the year 871, when England was Angle-Land. Of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, five have fallen to the invading Vikings. No trait is more valued than loyalty, and no possession more precious than one's steel. Across this war-torn landscape travels 15-year-old Ceridwen, now thrust into the lives of the conquerors.

The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia

Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias fascinated and terrorized 15th-century Renaissance Italy, and Lucrezia Borgia, beloved daughter of the pope, was at the center of the dynasty's ambitions. Slandered as a heartless seductress who lured men to their doom, was she in fact the villainess of legend, or was she trapped in a familial web, forced to choose between loyalty and survival?

The King’s Gambit

In this Edgar Award-nominated mystery, John Maddox Roberts takes listeners back to a Rome filled with violence and evil. Vicious gangs ruled the streets of Crassus and Pompey, routinely preying on plebeian and patrician alike. So the garroting of a lowly ex-slave and the disembowelment of a foreign merchant in the dangerous Subura district seemed of little consequence to the Roman hierarchy.

Into the Wilderness: Wilderness Saga, Book 1

Weaving a vibrant tapestry of fact and fiction, Into the Wilderness sweeps us into another time and place...and into the heart of a forbidden, incandescent affair between a spinster Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate readers from the very first page.

The Red and the Black

So what would Al Gore choose if he had a book club? Gore named Stendhal's The Red and the Black, a 19th century classic chock full of adultery, betrayal, and moral vacuity, as his favorite book on a recent broadcast of Oprah. It's a bit shocking of a choice, given his wife and running mate's position on clean, wholesome literature. Listen and decide for yourself the merit of this presidential pick.

Amy Snow: A Novel

It is 1831 when eight-year-old Aurelia Vennaway finds a naked baby girl abandoned in the snow on the grounds of her aristocratic family's magnificent mansion. Her parents are horrified that she has brought a bastard foundling into the house, but Aurelia convinces them to keep the baby, whom she names Amy Snow. Amy is brought up as a second-class citizen, but she and Aurelia are as close as sisters. When Aurelia dies at the age of 23, she leaves Amy 10 pounds. But Aurelia also left her much more.

The Lions of Al-Rassan

The ruling Asharites of Al-Rassan have come from the desert sands, but over centuries, seduced by the sensuous pleasures of their new land, their stern piety has eroded. The Asharite empire has splintered into decadent city-states led by warring petty kings. King Almalik of Cartada is on the ascendancy, aided always by his friend and advisor, the notorious Ammar ibn Khairan - poet, diplomat, soldier - until a summer afternoon of savage brutality changes their relationship forever.

Verbal Judo, Updated Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion

When you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you’re in control. Verbal Judo is the classic guide to the martial art of the mind and mouth that can help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation, whether you're talking to a boss, a spouse, or even a teenager. For more than a generation, Dr. George J. Thompson's essential handbook has taught people how to communicate more confidently and persuasively in any situation.

Children of Earth and Sky

From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request - and possibly to do more - and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman posing as a doctor's wife but sent by Seressa as a spy.

The Valley: The Valley Trilogy, Book 1

Left suddenly penniless, the Honorable Sophia Grafton, a viscount's orphaned daughter, sails to the New World to claim the only property left to her name: a tobacco plantation in the remote wilds of colonial Virginia. Enlisting the reluctant assistance of a handsome young French spy - at gunpoint - she gathers an unlikely group of escaped slaves and indentured servants, each seeking their own safe haven in the untamed New World.

The Summer Queen: Eleanor of Aquitaine Trilogy, Book 1

Eleanor of Aquitaine's story deserves to be legendary. She is an icon who has fascinated readers for over 800 years. But the real Eleanor remains elusive - until now. Based on the most up-to-date research, award-winning novelist Elizabeth Chadwick brings Eleanor's magnificent story to life, as never before, unveiling the real Eleanor. Young, golden-haired and blue-eyed Eleanor has everything to look forward to as the heiress to wealthy Aquitaine.

Some Danger Involved: Barker & Llewelyn Series, Book 1

An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto. When the eccentric and enigmatic Barker takes the case, he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved", he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past.

The Daughters of Palatine Hill: A Novel

Two years after Emperor Augustus's bloody defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, he triumphantly returns to Rome. To his only child, Julia, he brings an unlikely companion - Selene, the daughter of the conquered Egyptian queen and her lover. Under the watchful eye of Augustus's wife, Livia, Selene struggles to accept her new home among her parents' enemies. Bound together by kinship and spilled blood, these three women - Livia, Selene, and Julia - navigate the dangerous world of Rome's ruling elite.

Josephine: A Life of the Empress

Popular biographer Carolly Erickson creates intimate and richly detailed portraits of her historical subjects. In this book she offers a provocative new perspective on Josephine and her fabled marriage to Napoleon.

The Confessions of Young Nero

Built on the backs of those who fell before it, Julius Caesar's imperial dynasty is only as strong as the next person who seeks to control it. In the Roman Empire, no one is safe from the sting of betrayal: man, woman - or child. As a boy Nero's royal heritage becomes a threat to his very life, first when the mad emperor Caligula tries to drown him, then when his great-aunt attempts to secure her own son's inheritance. Faced with shocking acts of treachery, young Nero is dealt a harsh lesson: It is better to be cruel than dead.

Publisher's Summary

Roman historian Procopius publicly praised Theodora of Constantinople for her piety-while secretly detailing her salacious stage act and maligning her as ruthless and power hungry. So who was this woman who rose from humble beginnings as a dancer to become the empress of Rome and a saint in the Orthodox Church? Award-winning novelist Stella Duffy vividly recreates the life and times of a woman who left her mark on one of the ancient world's most powerful empires. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore is a sexy, captivating novel that resurrects an extraordinary, little-known figure from the dusty pages of history.

I am a Byzantine enthusiast and had higher expectations. This is a very difficult period of history to write about so I'll give the author some credit. Extinct religions were mainstream back then, yet the author managed that tricky exposition rather well. Some of the historic elements were mostly researched and well organized. But the book seems to summarize characters and events rather than penetrate that world. The people and places are very much at arms-length. Also, the author decides to just invent a modern lesbian spin on Theodora that seemed dreadfully forced and out of place. Ah well, average all around.

Important period of history breathed into life through the lens of Theodora's life. <br/><br/>The author illustrated the mindsets of the day, the religious and social questions that vexed most everyone and how people in intolerable social situations made their lives.<br/><br/>Funny how many of the religious and social issues explored in the book remain unresolved some 2000 years later.<br/><br/>I was initially concerned that perhaps the sexual aspects of Theodora's life would be exploited, and was relieved by the lack of graphic detail. Nothing salacious.Super book. Read it!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore?

The entire book poignantly showed how few options women have for autonomy in a patriarchy. Theodora's requisite service as a sex worker was treated even-handedly; I'll always remember the scene where she matter of factly paid her way from the hinterlands to Egypt by servicing two young shepherds who let her ride in their cart.I related to the description of how she disassociated her spirit and body throughout, and how she brought the two together through her time in the desert as penitent.

What does Davina Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Davina was one of my attractions to this book; she is a masterful narrator.

If you could take any character from Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Sophia the actress/whore/pimp. She was a dwarf and a woman who found a way to make her life in spite of her social and physical constraints. I'd want to understand what went through her mind and how she coped.

I found the concept of using the fictional novel format to describe a historical time and person intriguing. I was a bit disappointed by Stella Duffy constant and vulgar use of the word "f@%k" and found it redundant and distracting. Clearly Duffy did a tremendous amount of research on Theodora, Constantinople, the Romans, the Roman empire and the society of that time period and it was this that kept me listening despite Duffy's lack of better vocabulary and fixation on sexual mores of that period.

I am not the type of person who "rubber necks" at car wrecks so the constant graphic mention of minors being used for actors, acrobats and whores grated on me. I got the point right away that culturally, at that time in Constantinople, pedophilia was culturally permissible and that there was a belief that earthly deeds were not necessarily a reflection of spiritual piety.

Duffy also did a admirable job of discussing the nature of Christ and how the schism between dual and singular natured philosophies tore at the fabric of an empire. She did a somewhat decent job of describing how this issue was so important at that time that "spiritual and Pius" individuals would immerse themselves head deep in "sin" to further their agendas.

Over all a decent listen if you can overlook some of the books shortcomings and are interested in Duffy's operatic interpretation of the life and times of Empress Theodora.

I really loved this book about a smart woman who survives and succeeds despite great hardship. I particularly loved the part in the desert, though I wouldn't have expected to, not being particularly religious. She was redeemed, but in a very authentic and real way. It was well written. Davina Porter is excellent as usual, and a very good choice for this book.

And although I did miss a stronger historical aspect to this historical novel, I found it very entertaining. (I had hoped for a little more in the way of the atmosphere of The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry. A mashup of the two books would make for an excellent novel of life in Constantinople.) I do recommend Theodora, and know I will read it again and again.